The last gold leaf hangs on the bough;
Summer is just a mem'ry now.
You, too, have gone, my golden friend;
Our summer days came to an end.
We said goodbye; our chapter closed.
How I will miss you no one knows.
On eagle wings you split the skies;
Your spirit soared. You had to fly.
My earthbound soul will bear its grief
Severed from you on mortal reef;
But returning from yonder shore,
Your love in waves will wash me o'er.
You've gone before, my trusted love;
I wait behind, your mourning dove;
Yet, from across the great divide
Your voice to me in dreams confides.
No, I think not that dreams they are;
T is communion of the near with far.
On such sweet songs I stake my claim
To know and love you once again.

Strange shadows on these coral walls
stay hidden from the setting sun,
yet creeping through the shafts of amber light
drag behind them to the high parapet
a cloak of utter darkness.
Fierce defended, now are none:
no frightened men to urge the heavy cannon round
no shrill alarm or battle cries;
the end of this, as every other day has sealed
a silence now complete.
Once we held here, on this foreign shore,
the fortress of our childhood dreams
and all the world’s assaults
seemed nothing then;
an ocean breeze would cool the hurt of falling
and bring sweet scents to pick us up again.
Across the bay the dhows set sail upon a rising tide
their canvass spread against the purple sky.
We watched their leaving long ago
but you are gone away now, gone to sleep
and no injured soul so left alone
can wait to watch them home again.
Yet I will stand, a little or a while,
and will not fear cold shadows rising
nor while breathing yield the fort to them;
in every breach I meet your laughing eyes
and feel the warming of remembered suns.

You had the spirit of a stallion.
You could not be tamed until you were ready
and no matter how life may have tried you could not be broken.
You brought a piece of something that many did not possess to every life,
and when you opened your mouth unearthly words of wisdom were spoken.
You were strong and beautiful and had the deepest blue eyes I've ever seen.
The love that you held in your heart was like something out of dream,
almost unreal.
It was love and confidence and support and stability you made me feel.
God blessed me by letting me be a part of you.
I am so happy that our lives crossed paths and you helped see me through.
Now you are in His memory, waiting to be raised.
When you live again, your mind will be clear.
The fog will be lifted.
There will be no haze.
You will run about and never die.
You will feel no pain or fear, never cry.
Your days will be filled with love, strong and true.
Your last words to me were I love you.
Here I wait, just trying to get through.
I will see you again, Grandma.
Into my arms, I will welcome you.

I've trained for this.
Lungs burning, muscles twitching
as I close in
on the line-
24,25,26.
I see them clearly now-
My wife, my child-
smiling, cheering
as they urge me
through the echoes
of feet smacking
pavement,
through my
tunneled view of
the victory line,
through my exhaustion,
through my pain.
I've trained for this.
Lungs burning, muscles twitching
as I close in on my targets.
Thousands! There are many!
I can see them clearly now-
a woman, a child-
smiling, cheering
as I slip past
and drop my bags.
And now I am
running
through the
smoke and through the
screams as runners push
toward the finish line
without legs.
I've trained for this.
Lungs burning, muscles twitching
as I close in
on the scene.
175, 176...
I see them clearly now-
the woman, the child-
lifeless, bleeding
as they urge me
through echoes
of feet smacking
pavement,
through my
tunneled view of
torment and death and
I can do nothing but
hold their hand.

All in one faded-black day
(but let None forget)
In my arms, her body lay
(my life was the price to pay)
A tragedy, through the lack of humanly shame
(do they know pain)
My darkly colleen has to suffer no more
(Robert nor do you)
Let me die
(please hear my haunted cries)
If I can not see Sophie tonight
(live on with my grey)
I'm just a mess of despairing words
And broken nerves
Another mourning, afflicted sight
(through decay, love can remain)
Solace, sympathy are just more lies
She is all I need
Until you decide she is just another sadist's toy
My Angel, why did you have to fly so far away
My Angel, just let one feather stay
My Angel has flown away
My Angel, why did you have to fly so far away
My Angel, just let one feather stay
My Angel has flown away
(My body is amortal, die I may,
Together, our hearts will forever stay)

You flourished and blurred
like a spark on wind
Gracefully and quickly like a frightened hind
in pursuit of light
You harvested through bushy meadows
taken by blight
In struggle with plight
had you lost your might
And gave out
although never you gave up.
Where are you?
For you must be still there.
For I still can feel you
somewhere in the air.

Our great Balboa has left the hillock bare
And two waters converge in evening mist
Where from our vision he made us stare
As the divided dimensions rose and kiss
So sleep the sailor, so sleep the caravel
So sleep great Balboa, toll, toll your knell.
A sprig of spring is all autumn's promise
Winter is for children play, and for hubris.
The navy man has taken his golden wings
On glinted them against the silvery dusk
The eagle rising fro the earth sweetly sings
On dust-rock horizon where triumphs husk
The veil that cover human tears and fears
With tragedy that all mass and matter wears
A sprig of spring is all autumn's promise
Winter is for children play, and for hubris.
So Balboa, remember your craft on one engine
The sound barrier rescinded, brings you to earth
The grave has no remembering, O the final spin
That undo all dream of birth! fair Deist now inert
Shall only watching moon alert us of this memory
The great walk that expanded the edge of history?
A sprig of spring is all autumn's promise
Winter is for children play, and for hubris.
Conquistador of the modern world, great sailor
What tribes did you subjugate beyond Korea, tell
What corn you planted, what gold in your valor,
What new dominions now your great spirit swell?
I hear Darien laughing in the silence of the moon
I see the caparisoned horse, and the taps balloon
A sprig of spring is all autumn's promise
Winter is for children play, and fo hubris
They come, they come, stolid mourners slowly
The riderless horse ignorant you are gone, gone
Forever, grief bowed us, and pride lingers greatly
Thanking you for gyral cycle of an ambitious dawn.
But Balboa do you hear them, can you see tears
Can you reverse the plunder of the vernal years?
A sprig of spring is all autumn's surprise
Winter is for children play, and for hubris

TRIBUTE TO A COMEDIAN
Even with your witty strength
The little input of the labor
Of your mouth making the living
Smile away sorrow through jest of jaw,
As you sleep for too long today,
Wondering if there will ever be
Another dawn for you to sneeze
And squint your eyelids as
One gulping a cup full of reddish
Cameroon pepper during harmattan
Good to say goodnight as the sleep deepens
Though your name not boldly engraved
In the hearts of many, as the giant in you
Earlier slept off before you also
Joined to sleep and never to wake up anymore
A poem written by Uche ken Okologo. 4/30/2013

In him
We had a brother
A father
In long walk
In long walk
We had a hero
with fears
with tears
We had brave man
In our- cowards'
Days
We had bright face
In the dark of nights
We had his grace
Of heart
In agony of hates
We had his faith
In rages of miseries
In moments
Of doubts
A servant for his nation
We had
Madiba has gone
And past
In peace
Mandela
What he gave
For nation great
dreams in future
In peace
Madiba has gone
And past in peace
As a king
Crowned in his nation
What You were standing for
We will fight for
Anti evils of man
For peace
we will fight for
Son of Africa
Father for his nation
Lay in peace
Man who changed
the course of time
With faith
Nelson Mandela
The wise MAN REST IN PEACE

FOR THOSE WHO ALSO SACRIFICED…
(APROPOS SHEROES AND HEROES UNKNOWN)
Theirs too, was a journey of blood, flowing
From shores of seas to beds of rivers:
Filling pitchers of freedom overflowing
With captured liberties and unshackled free spirits
Rising above the river banks of the deltas’ terrors
Yet the remains are merely dry bones
Of unsung heroes
Resting here in scripture based echoes:
From dust thou cometh,
To dust thou returneth
For them, there are no eloquent epitaphs;
No stone monuments to greet the seasons:
Only praises of the wounded hearts of heirs.
In these times, only chosen popular ones,
Are given the stone monuments with
Curious cold chiseled epitaphs.
The sacrificed lives of the unknown poor,
Remain simple reflections of churchyard graves.

(Dedicated to Carlos Bousono)
Without digressions and steadily
You grew old like a river reaching the sea.
As one who reaches the sea and the sand,
you let go off the safety of the land.
You fought the storms battling with age.
Your spirit overcame. You turned a page.
Your words became salty and filled with shells,
drifting in light and drafted in spells.
Young in its fervour, brother of the waves,
your heart carried weight, wherever it braved.
Wherever it braved, you came into being
as when morning dawns and night is fleeing
in the slimmest of lights, and you suddenly know
a new day is born and you feel aglow.
You reached old age undisturbed by chance
with time for reflection and eager for balance,
with a gift to listen, repent and find peace,
as the sea waves receive, hold on and release.
As the sea winds play with an errant dove
may the Great Spirit enfold you with love,
carry you, written in wind, salt and sea
to Elysium’s infinite harmony.

So sad
So very, very sad
Those voices from the sky
So little time
So much to say, In those
Moments before they die
So few
So very, very few
The words that said goodbye
So far away
So very, very far away…
Yet heard…every whisper…every sigh
So many…
I love you’s so many stifled cries
So many pauses…so many tear-filled eyes
So lovely
So very, very lovely
Those precious words from on high
So silent
So very, profoundly silent
After that last goodbye
Those last “I love you’s,
Tell the kids I love them too
We’ll meet again… me and you”
Phones gently
So, so gently
Laid down and moved aside
So hard
So very, very hard to leave
Those voices from the sky
Let's Roll!!